Craving a Box of Yock
My grandma was the best cook I’ve ever known, and a lot of people would agree with me. She used to fix meals for church and family functions from picnics to massive dinners. I don’t think there was anything she couldn’t fix, and everything she made was done with love and care. A few months ago, someone brought up regional foods on BlueSky, and I thought about her and something she excelled at.
Yock.
Here’s a brief history about yock.
Yock, sometimes called yock-a-mein (a box of noodles), originated with Chinese immigrants who came to the Tidewater region of Virginia back in the early part of the 20th century. The locals largely call the southeast portion of Virgina Hampton Roads nowadays, though there are some who still call it Tidewater and a few weirdos, mostly in Virginia Beach, that want to adapt “Coastal Virginia” despite the only real city in a coastal area is Virginia Beach.
Go figure.
Anyway, these Chinese immigrants largely made their homes and set up businesses in Black parts of the region, mostly in Norfolk, South Norfolk (now part of Chesapeake), Portsmouth, and Suffolk. Some of these businesses were, of course, restaurants, which were a culinary oasis when some white-owned establishments didn’t serve Black patrons. Chinese and Black folks had each other’s backs and learned from each other.
One of the dishes commonly sold were the boxes of yock. They usually came in two varieties, chicken or pork (often a picnic shoulder cut). Because of certain religious restrictions, chicken was usually the more favored variety. The restaurant owners made their own unique noodles for this dish. It's a thick straight noodle not unlike lo mein noodles but, at the time, only made here in the 757. Some folks use spaghetti noodles if they can't find yock noodles right off, but the thicker the noodle, the better and heartier. Of course, if you use spaghetti rather than yock noodles, that's ya-ka-mein, which came to New Orleans after someone from Hampton Roads brought yock-a-mein there decades after it originated here and didn't have access to the traditional yock noodles found only in Hampton Roads.
The only place you could buy it were Chinese specialty shops or local Chinese restaurants, which are still pretty plentiful in the 757 to this day despite gentrification eroding a lot of communities in the latter half of the 20th century.
The box of yock was such a staple in a lot of Black households, mine included, and were often a major part of fundraising efforts for churches back when that was more of a family institution than an institution of arrogance. I don’t really like talking about what modern churches devolved to and would like to remember when churches were a major part of the community, and everyone was like a family.
I’d like to remember my grandma who was part of that church family.
Every quarter or so, my church used ot have a fundraiser. Not sure what they were raising funds for because for some reason, my church always needed money. The pastor knew my grandma was a great cook and knew how to make a lot of great meals, often volunteering at Sunday dinner functions every now and then. She also used to make a mean box of yock. My grandma and my mom prepared many boxes of yock for delivery on Saturday afternoons. They got the orders throughout the week and made each box unique for each consumer. I used to always go with them to get the ingredients that Thursday from the old Earle’s Grocery Store as well as the Chinese restaurant supply store on the other side of town. They knew where to go to get the best stuff, naturally.
That Saturday morning, while I was watching cartoons and eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes, I could smell the aromas coming from the kitchen as the yock ingredients were coming together. From what I remembered, this is how my grandma prepared yock.
In a huge pot, add water and whole chicken wings. That's essential because this is a meal, not a snack. Of course, you could always add whole bone-in thighs. See, the bones help build up the broth. That sticks to you. Makes it have body. Similarly, she used a larger pot and added a pork shoulder roast to make pork yock.
Add soy sauce, salt and pepper. Don't go heavy on the salt though. You're building a broth, not an ocean.
You could add apple cider vinegar to the broth to stem off some of the saltiness, but my grandma made that optional for the chicken version but was necessary for the pork version of yock. For the chicken yock, she put vinegar in the finished product on its own.
When you could smell it all coming together, add the yock noodles. Let it all cook. Savor the scent in your kitchen. That's part of my childhood on those Saturday mornings when she made boxes for yock sales for the church.
When my grandma packaged each box, she added a few chicken wings (or chunks of pork) to the box, some noodles, another wing or chunk, apple cider vinegar and ketchup, topped them off with a few squirts of soy sauce and chopped white onions, and had folded a small packet of cayenne red pepper along with a napkin and plastic fork on the side because not a lot of people enjoyed that spicy life. We wrapped and labeled each order and drove to each house delivering each box of yock and getting those funds.
My grandma always made a little extra for the house, so, needless to say, I got my yock in a big bowl at home. Didn’t need the vinegar, onions, or cayenne pepper. A nice bowl of yock, especially on a cold evening, was always a nice closer to a busy day.
My grandma’s no longer here (I lost her back in 1999) and that church culture that she was a part of died long before she did, but memories of those yock fundraisers remind me of better times. Cozier and comfortable times I probably took for granted when I was a little kid, but longing for the older I get. That box of yock was a little bit of heaven my grandma shared with so many people, and every now and then, someone tells me about how much they remember and enjoyed it way back then.
I’m tempted to make a bowl of yock myself to see if I could do my grandma proud. I know it won’t be as good as hers, but any challenge is worth trying. Been looking for things to make me happy, and that bit of heaven might do the trick.
A simple box of love. That’s what that yock was for me and so many folks.
Comments